J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije

Lives & Works in Died in 1989

J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije founded Deo Gratias photography studio in Jamestown, British-Accra, Gold Coast at the age of twenty-three. The studio, which celebrated a hundred years of operation in 2022, is still open today and is one of the oldest photography studios in Africa. Throughout his lifetime Bruce-Vanderpuije documented both day-to-day life and historical events in the Gold Coast and Ghana. In 1948 he photographed the shooting of Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey by the British Head of Police; these photographs were later used as evidence in court. This event, which encouraged the anti-colonial movements for the British government to institute a committee to investigate the shooting, is largely regarded as the catalyst for Ghana’s eventual independence in 1957. Independence day was also famously caught on camera by Bruce-Vanderpuije who pictured Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s speech at the Polo Grounds. Ultimately, J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije not only photographed history, but created it. J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije will be presented by Efie Gallery.